A TOTAL of 136 doctors and nurses from the regions have been assigned to 10 hospitals in the National Capital Region (NCR) to augment the medical workforce attending to the increasing number of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients.
As of Friday, April 9, 2021, the number of active Covid-19 cases in the country has soared to a new record of 178,351 as the Department of Health (DOH) reported 12,225 new infections.
Covid-19 deaths nationwide also hit a new high as the DOH reported 401 mortalities Friday, including 213 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries but were validated to be deaths.
Most of these new cases and deaths were reported in the NCR, according to the DOH.
The first batch of medical workers who were sent to the NCR consisted of 42 doctors and nurses from Ilocos, Calabarzon and Bicol regions.
They were assigned to the East Avenue Medical Center and Quirino Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital in Caloocan City, and Amang Rodriguez Memorial Hospital in Marikina City.
The second batch is composed of 50 healthcare workers from Cebu and 44 others from Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Davao and Bangsamoro regions.
They will be deployed this week to the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Lung Center of the Philippines and the off-site extension of Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center at the Quezon Institute in Quezon City, San Lazaro Hospital and Tondo Medical Center in the City of Manila, and Rizal Medical Center in Pasig City.
Benefits
Under this program, the healthcare workers are entitled to RT-PCR testing prior, during and after their deployment.
They will also receive a per diem, work transportation expenses, accommodation and meals, among others, on top of their salaries and other emoluments from their mother offices.
The hospitals that will get additional healthcare workers include seven DOH hospitals, two specialty hospitals and one regional hospital.
Aside from deployment of doctors and nurses, the DOH is also working on increasing the bed capacity of its hospitals.
On April 7, the DOH and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) opened a 110-bed offsite modular hospital extension of the Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center (JRRMMC) at the Quezon Institute.
The facility also has dormitories with kitchen, pantry and laundry room, which can accommodate 64 healthcare workers.
Covid-19 update
Infections in the Philippines continued to climb rapidly as the DOH reported 12,225 new infections that pushed the number of active cases to 178,351, or 21.2 percent of the cumulative case count of 840,554 on Friday.
The 401 additional mortalities confirmed on Friday were the highest single-day death toll since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
These brought the cumulative deaths to 14,520, the DOH case bulletin showed. The case fatality rate went up to 1.73 percent.
The case bulletin also showed that the positivity rate further increased to 21.4 percent. There were 39,360 samples tested for Sars-CoV-2 as of noon of April 8.
The number does not include yet those from 10 laboratories that failed to submit their test results.
There were 946 new recoveries, bringing the total to 647,683, or 77.1 percent of the cumulative case count.
The National Capital Region continued to post the highest 14-day running total of new cases as of April 8, with 59,373 infections.
These are nearly three times the 20,222 new cases in the Calabarzon for the same period. Calabarzon has a bigger population of about 14.4 million than the NCR’s estimated 13 million people.
Other regions with high 14-day cases were Central Luzon with 11,229, Cagayan Valley with 5,313 and Cordillera with 3,117. Central Visayas is no longer in the top five. (SUNSTAR PHILIPPINES)